Perigo Opposes Anderton’s Pork Barrel - Libz

It seems the relevant luminaries have now returned from
their study tour of North Korea to parade a glossy new ‘jobs
machine’ to be presided over by none other than Industries
Commissar Jim Neanderton. Reflects former Libertarianz
leader Lindsay Perigo:

“We are clearly on the verge of
another orgy of pork-barrelling, palm-greasing,
"winner"-picking, cronyism and corporate welfarism.

Not
what-you-know but whom-you-know in or from Wellington will
determine your success. The sickening thing is that there'll
be no shortage of candidates lining up for the confiscated,
forcibly redirected money that Comrade Neanderton's new
politburo will be doling out to his new ‘partners’.”

“In
this regard, says Perigo helpfully, “I can't do better than
direct you to a speech by T. J. Rodgers entitled ‘Why
Silicon Valley should not normalise relations with
Washington DC.’

“It has just been posted on the web site
of the Cato Institute: www.cato.org, and it applies as much
to the businessmen of Silicon Valley as it does to those
here in New Zealand”.

T. J. Rodgers is president and Chief
Executive Officer of Cypress Semiconductor, one of the
wondrously successful corporates based in Silicon Valley at
the southern end of the San Francisco Bay area.

It
started as six founders with a fifteen-page business plan
which they sold to a consortium for $3.5 million . it is now
worth $1 billion. Silicon Valley itself, says Rodgers, "is a
successful and dynamic example of basic American values at
work: private property, intellectual property ownership,
free trade and free markets. Just as Americans are more
prosperous than people in other countries because our
economy is freer, the people of Silicon Valley are better
off than the average American because Silicon Valley economy
is even freer from and less dependent on government."

But
the siren seductress of subsidisation and protection is
rearing her head. CEOs "are constantly told to stop sitting
on the political sidelines, recognise the value of
'industry-government partnerships' and become donors,
lobbyists and recipients of subsidies." "Statist" CEOs -
i.e. businessmen more skilled at licking politicians'
bottoms than at business - are lining their businesses up
for Other People's Money. Morally and economically, says
Rodgers, this is the kiss of death. "The political scene in
Washington is antithetical to the core values that drive our
success in the international marketplace. The collectivist
notion that drives policymaking in Washington is the
irrevocable enemy of high-technology capitalism and the
wealth creation process. Silicon Valley is an island of
capitalism and freedom admired around the world. We must
remember that free minds and free markets are the moral
foundation that has made our success possible. We must never
allow these freedoms to be diminished for any
reason."

“Comrade Neanderton could save himself and the
rest of us a heap of trouble by forgetting about this new
politburo and reducing taxes and regulations instead. Make
it possible for new T. J. Rodgers to breathe and bloom. Who
knows,” wonders Perigo, “if we freed things up sufficiently,
we might lure the original down here!”

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